CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR CONVENTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 227, 26 September 1898, Page 5

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR CONVENTION.

TO-DAY'S PROCEEDINGS.

THE GAMBLING EVIL,

[Continued from Page 2.]

The meeting's in connection with the Christian Endeavour Union' Convention were continued to-day at the Mission Tent, opposite the Free Library. From eight to nine o'clock this morning a prayer and Scripture memory meeting was held in the Tent. Mi- K. S. Abel led the meeting which was fairly . well attended.

Between one and two o'clock this afternoon a service for men was held in the Mission Tent. There was a fair attendance, and the Rev. W. Pindlay

Wilson, 8.A., presided. Mr C. W. Hemery accompanied the singing of the various hymns on the harmonium. Diiring the meeting the congregation sang the hymns 'Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' 'How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds,' and 'Simply' Trusting Every Day;' and the Chairman led in prayer, and read a portion of the Psalms.

Mr Theo. Cooper addressed the meeting, and said he desired to make some remarks on a subject which he thought had not been sufficiently considered by 'the C.E. Union or by the public, and that was the question of the evils caused by the ever increasing vice of gambling and betting. This was specially rife amongst young men. It was customary to take a text and he would take it from one of Herbert Spencer's works on Sociology. He read an extract from Herbert Suencer, stating the moral and social grounds on which gambling was to be reprobated. It was anti-social, produced a hard egotism, and led to a general deterioration of charcter. He said he need not enlarge on the enormity of the evil, for all knew that persons in all classes of the community had suffered from the vice. Many of them, including the speaker, could mourn the results of gambling to their relatives and

friends. It was the younger men they wanted to reach. There was no sporting- or athletic meeting now at? which they would not find bookmakers present, and it was a' crying- evil, and one in respect of which action should be taken, to see in midday in Queen-st. young men, and older men too, without any sense of shame, openly giving and taking bets with bookmakers on the eve of a race meeting. They had only to go to the racecourses to see how this evil was permeating the community. The great majority of the people who went there did not go to see the horses racing, but to risk their money in bets with the bookmakers or on the totalisator. The Christian Endeavour Societies in the colony had a very large membership, and there was a force here at the command of the Union which would prove of great value in combatting this evil. While the C.E. Union should cultivate the sentimental and emotional feeling, they should go further and look more sufficiently to the practical in fighting and destroying some of the great evils which were rampant in the community. In- the directions of social immorality, drinking and betting the members of the CIS. movement could do a great deal, if feach member was' to use his personal efforts in stemming gambling and betting. He advocated an anti-gambling association in connection with the C.E. Union, and if this were done he said some practical good would be done and thus the movement of the C.E. would gain additional force and respect. The totalisator had not minimised the evil of betting, but had rather increased it, and the first step should be an ag-itation for the abolition of the totalisator. This would reduce the number of race meetings. Then they wanted the Legislature to pass a measure to put a stop to streetbetting, which was a disgrace to every city in the colony. Then the practice of playing cards for money, even for pennies or threepence, , should be strongly deprecated. They wanted to inculcate a feeling amongst clerks and other younger men that betting was immoral and was, as Herbert Spencer put it, anti-social. It seared the sympathy of the man who won, and it often had the result of disgracing and sending to prison or suicide men who began by gambling on a small scale. They wanted to create a healthy public feeling' so that it would be considered disreputable to be found gambling or putting money on the totalisator. He commended to thfe earnest attention of the Christian Endeavour members the desirability of forming at this Convention some movement which should prove of service in fight-, ing this gambling cvil —an evil that was sapping the morals of the people, and especially of the young men of the community. (Applause.) The V Chairman commended this proposal to turn into a practical channel the Christianity of the members of the Union, and directed attention to a Conference of the C.E. Union on the subject of gambling. At 2.30 this afternoon a devotional meeting was held in the Mission Tent, an address being given by the Rev. W. A. Sinclair on 'What I Ought to Bring to the ■ Convention.' Subsequently a C.E. Conference was held in the tent, the Eev. G. B. Monro presiding. The subject of the meeting was 'Our Trust —The Boys and Girls.' Short addresses on the subjects of 'Temperance,' 'Bands of Mercy,' 'Sunday School Work,' and 'Eecreations' were given by the Revs. W. J. Williams, and C. E. Ward, and.Messrs J. Burton and Rountree respectively, and discussion followed on each topic.